不宜遲 No Time To Waste
八戒，你變做刁鑽古怪，我變做古怪刁鑽，沙僧裝做個販豬羊的客人，走進那虎口洞裡，得便處，各人拿了兵器，打絕那妖邪，回來卻收拾走路。」沙僧笑道：「妙妙妙，不宜遲，快走。」老王果依此計，即教管事的買辦了七八口豬、四五腔羊。八戒，你变做刁钻古怪，我变做古怪刁钻，沙僧装做个贩猪羊的客人，走进那虎口洞里，得便处，各人拿了兵器，打绝那妖邪，回来却收拾走路。」沙僧笑道：「妙妙妙，不宜迟，快走。」老王果依此计，即教管事的买办了七八口猪、四五腔羊。
逐句解 Line by line
"Eight Rules, you change into Sly-Devious Odd-Queer; I shall change into Odd-Queer Sly-Devious; and Sha Monk will dress as a dealer in pigs and sheep. We will walk into that Tiger-Mouth Cave, and where we see our chance, each of us will take up his weapon and finish off those fiends,"
The whole plan in one breath, and it turns entirely on the two name tablets he untied a few lines ago. Sha Monk gets the only role that is not an impersonation, because there is nobody for him to impersonate — the dealer is invented to explain why a third stranger is walking in.
Sha Monk laughed and said, "Splendid, splendid, splendid! No time to lose — let us be off."
Sha Monk says almost nothing in this book, and when he does it tends to be the sound of a decision being ratified. Three of the same graph in a row is as animated as he gets.
The old prince did indeed follow this plan, and at once ordered his steward to buy seven or eight pigs and four or five sheep.
The numbers are vague on purpose — the prince buys roughly what is wanted, and Pilgrim will quote exact figures to the monster later. Watch what happens to seven-or-eight and four-or-five when they reach the cave gate.
This is the shortest passage in the chapter and it sets up everything that follows. Three disguises, one cover story, a herd of livestock and a stolen purse — the entire second half of the chapter runs on the props assembled in these three lines.
The plan's weak point is visible from the start, and the novel plants it deliberately: the two impersonations rely on tablets and faces, but nobody thinks about what the real servants will do when the spell wears off at noon tomorrow. That loose end is picked up in the chapter's last movement.